LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to approve a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 to be achieved by 2020 and to ensure that statewide greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to at least 40% below the 1990 level by 2030. Existing law establishes the Natural Resources Agency as the state agency responsible for coordinating development of the state’s climate adaptation strategy, known as the Safeguarding California Plan. Existing law establishes programs, including the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program and a regional climate collaborative program, to coordinate and facilitate regional and local responses to climate
change.

This bill would declare that it is the policy of the State of California to restore an optimal safe climate and to provide maximum protection from climate change to all people and species, globally, including the most vulnerable. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the state, in furtherance of that policy, undertake various immediate and large-scale efforts, including conversion of the economy to zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2030, with an immediate phaseout of fossil fuels. The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.

Digest Key

Vote:
MAJORITY
Appropriation:
NO
Fiscal Committee:
YES
Local Program:
NO

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Chapter 7.1 (commencing with Section 8669) is added to Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to read:

CHAPTER
7.1. Climate Emergency Declaration and Policy

8669.

The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) A climate emergency exists that threatens the State of California, the nation, humanity, and the natural world.

(b) Irrevocable damage to the environment has been caused by global warming of approximately 1 degree celsius demonstrating that the Earth is already too hot for safety and justice, as attested by increased and intensifying wildfires, floods, rising seas, diseases, droughts, and extreme weather.

(d) The State of California is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and has already been subjected to devastating disasters caused by global warming, including increasing droughts, flooding, and wildfires.

(e) Marginalized populations in the State of California and worldwide, including people of color, immigrants, indigenous communities, low-income individuals, and people with disabilities, are already disproportionately affected by climate change, and will continue to bear an excess burden as temperatures increase.

(f) The United States has disproportionately contributed to these climate and ecological crises through its historic use of carbon-producing fossil fuels.

(g) Restoring a safe and stable climate
and reversing biodiversity loss requires an emergency “Climate Mobilization” on a scale not seen since World War II to attain zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors at wartime speed, to rapidly and safely draw down or remove all excess carbon from the atmosphere, and to implement measures to protect all people and species from the consequences of abrupt climate change and ecological destruction.

(h) Building a society that is resilient to the current, expected, and potential effects of climate change will protect health, lives, environments, and economies. Resilience is best achieved by preparing for the most dramatic potential consequences of climate change.

(i) Justice demands climate policy that addresses the specific experiences, vulnerabilities, and needs of the marginalized communities most affected by the effects of climate change, and includes those communities
in climate and ecological resilience planning, policy and actions.

8670.

(a) It is hereby declared to be the policy of the State of California to restore an optimal safe climate and to provide maximum protection from climate change to all people and species, globally, including the most vulnerable.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the state do all of the following in furtherance of that policy:

(1) Convert the economy to zero greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, but no later than 2030, which requires an immediate phaseout of fossil fuels.

(2) Immediately initiate a multigenerational effort to draw down greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere in as short a time
as possible, and develop research in support of this goal.

(3) Immediately initiate a massive effort to restore ecosystems.

(4) Respond to the climate emergency based on a just transition framework that focuses on equity, self-determination, culture, tradition, deep democracy, and the fundamental human right of all people in the world to clean, healthy, and adequate air, water, land, food, education, and shelter.

(5) Engage the public in climate-emergency-related deliberations on a massive scale, so that hundreds of thousands or millions of citizens influence, and can see their influence on, the policy and resource decisions that impact their daily lives and their future.

(6) Encourage nongovernment actors to contribute to the development and
implementation of solutions.

(7) Catalyze and organize an emergency mobilization to restore a safe climate in other states and at the federal and global level.